Cultivation of Botany in England. 435 



pay a greater price for a lovely rose-bush, than for the rarest 

 plant from New Holland or the Cape of Good Hope; and as 

 to the poor artizan of the French capital, he only thinks of 

 vegetable productions as they are fit for culinary uses ; and 

 whether they be blue or green to look at, is the same to him. 

 Hence it arises that the Parisian flower-market offers a much 

 more delightful vista than that of London, though it is much 

 smaller and more poorly stocked; as the French capital itself 

 cannot compare v/ith London for extent or wealth. 



If the French pave the squares of their city that they may 

 aff"ord a more agreeable promenade, the English change theirs 

 into delightful lawns, which afford a prospect of verdure to 

 every house in the square. In the larger squares, these green 

 plots are planted with groups of trees ; and in the smaller 

 ones with clumps of flowering bushes and shrubs, often inter- 

 spersed with trees. By this arrangement, these quadrangles, and 

 the houses which surround the'm, have quite a rural and ro- 

 mantic appearance. According to the capabilities of the situa- 

 tion, these plots are sometimes square, sometimes oval or cir- 

 cular; and they are railed in with a light tasteful palisade 

 which does not injure the prospect. Where the streets are 

 vei-y wide, there is in front of every house a small garden, 

 fenced in front, and generally containing a small green, and 

 some tufts of elegant shrubs or beautiful flowering plants, which 

 give to the whole street a cheerful, and to a certain degree a 

 theatrical appearance. The houses themselves are often co- 

 vered as high as the second story with Jasmine, Roses (particu- 

 larly Rosa sempeijlorens and Banksii), with Clematis, Corchorus 

 japonicus, Bignoiiia radicans, and the like, or entwined with 

 "them as a beautiful garland. Camellias ( ? ), Rhododendrons, and 

 Dahlias, usually form the clumps on tlie green places before 

 the houses, which are no where seen in such perfection as in 

 England ; for the beauty of these verdant lawns, which extend 

 in iront of the dwellings like a green velvet carpet, has often 

 attracted my attention ; and I have inciuired of several gar- 

 tleners the names of the particular species of grass employed 

 for tliis purpose. Agrosiis alba, verticillata, and stolonijera, 

 Poa pratensis, Lolium perenne, and I'cstma j^ratensis, have all 

 been iiuliffetently named : almost every person has mentioned 

 some other kind than has been recommended by my former 

 informants; but all agree in this, that tiiese grass plots re- 

 (|uire to be mown carefully every fortnight, — some say even 

 every week,— with the siyilie; in fact, to be close shaven. To 

 the great frequency with "which the grass is cut, the beauty of 

 these lawns, or bowling-greens, seems to be cliicfly owing ; their 

 fine preservalion is also aided l)v the mild and ecjuable climate 

 3 K 2 " t'f 



